


Loving You Was Easier (than anything I'll ever do again)

by alexcat



Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Falling In Love, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-01-31 05:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18584395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexcat/pseuds/alexcat
Summary: Over time, they fall in love.





	Loving You Was Easier (than anything I'll ever do again)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yujacheong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujacheong/gifts).



> The names and planets are from generators. This takes place in the Clone Wars era before Anakin comes under too much influence from Palpatine.

Having lived all his life as a Jedi, Obi-Wan really did not know the difference in how filial love and romantic love felt. He never gave it much thought, actually. His master had been one of the few Jedi who believed in love and in attachments to other people. Obi-Wan had taken a cue from the older Masters and disapproved of his Master’s foibles. Yoda had been pleased with him.

After Qui-Gon Jinn died and he inherited Anakin as a padawan, he decided to treat the boy as a little brother, much as he had when Qui-Gon Jinn was alive. 

In many ways, Ani was a lot like his Master, impulsive, passionate, and always emotional. He was also so powerful that Obi-Wan was sometimes concerned that he was not wise enough to teach the boy. Yoda, apparently, had the same concern when Qui-Gon first brought Anakin to the order and he’d refused to have him trained at the Academy.

All that power was not so bad when they were on dangerous missions, though. 

They had gone to an unaffiliated world out on the boundaries of known space. Their mission had been to try to bring the planet into the fold of the Republic. The ruling body of Arlax had different ideas. They thought that two Jedi might fetch a nice bounty from the Republic. 

Here they were, in a cell on some forsaken planet out near the edge of known space. Their knowledge of the people they dealt with was minimal and the language wasn’t even included on their language translators. The Arlaxians spoke Basic well enough when they needed to, but most of their conversations were in the Arlaxian dialect, which neither Obi-Wan nor Anakin understood very well. 

“You know they plan to kill us, no matter what the Jedi Council or the Republic do, don’t you?” Anakin asked him, more anger than fear in his voice. 

“I didn’t need to understand their language to get that.” 

“So what do we do?” A little fear crept in Anakin’s question.

“We figure a way out. We always do.”

“Sometimes your calm makes me angry,” Anakin told him, pacing the cell. 

“Sometimes everything makes you angry, Ani. I think sometimes that you were born angry.”

“I was born a slave. I can’t really understand anyone turning down the Republic and the chance to be free.” 

Obi-Wan stepped close to his companion and patted his shoulder awkwardly. After all these years, simple touch was still something that made him uncomfortable. For some reason, touching Ani was even more unsettling lately. 

His touch seemed to settle Anakin a little though. 

Anakin got quiet for a while and Obi-Wan knew he was using the Force to see what lay outside their cell, to find a way out, if there was one. He had already scanned the area himself. There were several guards, but he felt that they might be easily manipulated. The thick reinforced steel walls were quite another problem. Even using their lightsabers, there would still be a lot of cutting to do to get out.

“Perhaps we can simply have them unlock our cells,” Anakin said. “I suppose it’s too simple to work.”

Obi-Wan laughed and Anakin stared at him oddly for a moment. 

“What? Did you think I’ve forgotten to laugh?” 

Anakin hid a half smile. “Truthfully, I wasn’t aware you knew how to begin with.” 

The idea of simply walking out wouldn’t leave Obi-Wan. After their meager dinner of dried something that looked a little like bantha poodoo, he paced the cell, thinking. 

“I think we can get them to let us go. But we need to find out where our ship and our lightsabers are. I’m going to recommend that the Republic not take this planet into the fold,” he told Anakin, who finally burst out laughing himself. 

“I concur. Now let’s plan this thing.”

They had not been blindfolded when brought down to the cells, so they had a sense of where they were in the complex in comparison to where they entered. Every Jedi was connected to the lightsaber he made for himself and so each of them was able to reach out to find their lightsaber’s location as well. 

Now all they needed to do was get the guards to unlock the door!

They waited until late into the night and began to work their plan. The guards came by and said simply, “We’re letting you go now.” Obi-Wan’s work. He was always good with the old Jedi mind tricks. 

Next, he waved a hand and said, “And you’re not tripping the alarm yet.”

“We aren’t tripping the alarm yet,” the second guard said as she unlocked the door. 

The two Jedi slipped free and went in search of their lightsabers and their ship. It turned out that the sabers were stored in the prelate’s safe. In the prelate’s bedchamber. The room was surrounded by guards, at least ten of them. Perhaps they could get in when the general alarm sounded over their escape. 

Just as if they’d ordered it, the alarms began to sound everywhere. The guards around the prelate’s apartments scrambled to the prison section. 

“Did you add that command when I wasn’t looking?” Obi-wan asked Anakin. 

Anakin grinned and shrugged, slipped into the prelate’s apartment while Obi-Wan watched. He came out moments later with the sabers, handing Obi-Wan’s to him. They ran toward the hangar bay to find their ship and leave. 

“There’s never a dull moment with you, Ani,” Obi-wan said as they ran. 

Anakin just smiled back at him. 

“This feels familiar,” Obi-wan said as they had to fight their way to their ship, back to back. Once in the ship, escaping was all on Anakin. If there was one thing he did better than anyone in the galaxy, it was to fly. 

“Go, go, go, go!” Obi-wan shouted as Anakin quickly flipped a dozen switches to start up their little ship. Obi-Wan took control of the ship’s guns as they flew out the open hangar bay.

The Arlaxians scrambled at least a dozen fighters to subdue them, but none of the pilots were any match for Anakin’s skills. 

“Whoooweee!” Anakin shouted as he flew this way and that, evading the ships chasing him as Obi-Wan manned the ship’s guns to shoot at the ones who got too close. 

They zigged and zagged their way clear of Arlaxian space and headed for home, the center of the known universe, Coruscant. They stopped for a few days on Anakin’s old home planet, Tatooine. They needed to catch their breath and to refuel. Then it would be back home and off to the Clone Wars once again. 

“I hate this planet. If there is a bright center to the universe, this is farthest from it.” Anakin told Obi-Wan as they paid the fee to dock their ship and to fuel it as well on Tatooine. 

“That about zaps our funds. This was supposed to be a peaceful mission,” Obi-wan said as they walked into a cantina and ordered the cheapest food and drink they could find.

“We can sleep on the ship and take off tomorrow for home. I’m sure they’ll have us both out in the field before the week is out.”

They finished their meager meal and headed back to the ship. 

“I thought you were the strangest kid I’d ever met,” Obi-Wan told him as they settled in their bunks, one above the other since the ship was not terribly spacious. 

“I thought you were a whiny old man! You seemed so rigid compared to Qui-Gon. I miss him still, though. Do you?” Anakin asked. 

“Yes, every single day. He was the only family I ever had. I was raised by the Jedi. It’s all I’ve ever known.”

“I miss my mother. She was a good woman. She didn’t deserve to die like she did.” 

Obi-Wan felt a rush of affection for Anakin. He wanted to comfort the man for the boy who lost his mother. 

“Maybe we should get some sleep,” Obi-wan said awkwardly. “We need to get back tomorrow.” 

And they slept. 

Morning came early and they readied the ship for their trip.

Back home on Coruscant, there were meetings and debriefings. No one was pleased with the outcome from Arlax, but there was always the chance they would find hostility every time they went on one of these outreach missions. It was simply part of the job. 

Anakin took it more as a failure than Obi-Wan did, but Anakin had always taken things much more personally than his mentor had. Perhaps it came from growing up as a slave and being blamed for things not his fault. Obi-Wan certainly never blamed him for their failures. He wasn’t sure if Anakin blamed himself or not. 

He tried not to examine his own feelings for Anakin too closely these days. They often confused him. 

Their next assignment was to escort a monarch from a new member of the Republic, the planet Caru, to Coruscant for her first state visit. This one was already friendly to the Republic. 

Or so they thought. 

Caru was a planet rife with civil unrest and a very sizable group of rebels opposed to the monarchy, wanting some form of democracy instead, were waging a war of terrorism against the ruling family. The monarch herself sided with these rebels perhaps not as secretly as she thought, since her own cousin was trying to depose her.

Obi-Wan and Anakin walked into the middle of this when they landed on Caru to act as escort. It wasn’t the first or last time either. The rebels shot at them, the imperial guard shot at them. They got away thanks to their skills as Jedi and again as Anakin’s skills as a pilot. They even managed to get away with the monarch in tow. 

Once safely away from her home planet, the young woman relaxed and smiled at them. 

“I am Tiiona Dener, the supreme ruler of Caru and as of now, a woman without a planet. My government had no idea that it was me and my family’s wealth who backed the rebels. Now they do but as I have not yet been deposed, I will visit Coruscant as Ruler of Caru.”

The two Jedi introduced themselves to her. 

“I suspect they will eventually come for us. My cousin will want the throne,” she threw out. 

“We will keep you safe,” Anakin said with all the confidence of a very young man.

She peeled off her robes to reveal a soldier’s garb and weapons underneath. “You fly me. I can protect myself fairly well on my own.”

Obi-Wan smiled to himself. Sometimes Anakin reminded him still of the brash little boy they met on Tatooine so many years ago. For the most part, he was good on his boasts, but still it was nice to see someone deflate him a little now and again. 

They were accosted by a Caruvian cruiser the next day. 

“We demand the return of our monarch. You have kidnapped her,” the man on the screen yelled at them when they opened a communications channel.

Tiiona laughed. “There he is – the cousin who would be king. I like that he’s pretending you’re the villains. Are you a good pilot, Skywalker?”

Anakin nodded. “I’m the best, Your Majesty.”

“Call me Tiiona and get us out of here.”

He grinned at her. “As you wish!” 

The cruiser began firing on them without notice and it really was only by Anakin’s skill that they dodged the fire and got away. Soon they were out of sensor range of the large ship. They hid on a small, sparsely populated planet for a few days, not being able to contact Coruscant for fear of being found. 

They stayed aboard the ship mostly, taking turns monitoring the surrounding area. 

One evening, Anakin and Obi-Wan were outside, sitting near the ship. The monarch was working on the speech she would give on Coruscant in an attempt to garner support for her government and for her ideas to modernized and change her planet. 

“Have you ever been in love?” Anakin asked Obi-Wan.

“Not really, I don’t think. We were taught in the Academy that love would distract us from our purpose.”

“Qui-Gon didn’t believe that.” 

“No, and he was often in trouble with the Council for that very reason.”

“I think I might be in love,” Anakin said. 

Obi-Wan was intrigued. Perhaps another Jedi? He’d always known that the boy would follow Qui-Gon’s teaching over his own, but when had he had time to fall in love? 

He felt a stab of jealousy, which shocked him. He thought that it was because he wanted to feel free enough to fall in love himself. He thought that right up until he asked Anakin who he was in love with.

“Don’t you know?” Anakin’s smile was coy. Obi-Wan wasn’t even sure _he_ knew how to be coy.

“I have been trying to figure who it could be. You seldom see anyone but me.” 

Anakin said nothing, leaving the statement Obi-Wan made hanging in the air between them. Obi-Wan decided to let it go for now. Anakin would tell him when he was ready. 

The next day, it was time to come out of hiding and get Tiiona Dener to her meetings in Coruscant. She was hoping to return home with at least a small army to help reinforce her own support on Caru. With the support of other senators like Amadala and Bail Organa, there was a chance for her to change her government. 

Obi-Wan didn’t consciously think of what Anakin said about being in love, but it hovered in the back of his mind. 

Should he talk to Master Yoda or Master Windu when they got home? Should he encourage Anakin to do so himself? Anakin didn’t say he’d done anything with the person he ‘might be in love’ with, so maybe he should be quiet about it until Anakin did something. Would it be too late then? 

They had not been in space more than two hours when the alarms went off. They were being targeted by someone. 

A second Caruvian cruiser had been lying in wait for them. 

“We can’t outgun them,” Obi-Wan stated, which was obvious to them all. 

“I can outrun them,” Anakin said, bold as usual. 

“Do it!” Tiiona Dener urged him. She’d taken a liking to the brash, young Jedi.

They took a few hits this time and sustained a small amount of hull damage, but in the end, Anakin’s flying skills won out and they managed to out maneuver and outrun the larger ship.

They arrived in Coruscant without further incident. 

After their meetings were done, Anakin sought Obi-Wan out. 

“Let’s go flying.”

Obi-wan shook his head. “Haven’t you had enough?”

“There’s never enough flying. Come on.”

Obi-wan couldn’t say no and they took Anakin’s little pleasure craft out for a spin. A spin is what they got as he twisted and rolled the little ship all over the skies above the city. 

“Sometimes I think you’re not happy until some throws up,” Obi-Wan teased him.

Anakin grinned. “My job’s not done until then.”

They went to a fast food place after their flight. Anakin seemed reluctant to go back to the Jedi Temple. 

“So tell me who do you think you’ve fallen in love with, Ani?”

Anakin laughed. “Don’t you know?” 

“I don’t think so.” 

“Think about it. Obi-Wan. Who do I spent my time with?” 

“I don’t know of -” It hit him. To his surprise, he felt a great sense of relief. He hadn’t wanted Anakin to love anyone else, had he? “Me? You love me?”

Anakin smiled and nodded. “Of course. You are all the things I’m not. Patient, wise, kind. You keep me from going off in the wrong direction.” 

“How long?”

“Years, actually. Could you love me back, do you think?” His face was so hopeful, so young. 

“We cannot be together openly. You know the Council will not allow it.” 

“I don’t care. Does this mean you love me as well?” 

Obi-wan reached across the table and put his hands over Anakin’s. “It does. I didn’t realize it until you said you were in love and I was jealous. But yes, Anakin, I think I’m in love with you, too.” 

“I’d really like to kiss you now. Do you think we might go for a walk?” Anakin stood. 

Obi-wan nodded and rose as well. “I’d like that. I’d really like that.”


End file.
